In a conventional merchant-consumer financial transaction, the merchant's point of sale terminal or online payment process engine submits a payment request to an acquirer for payment for the transaction. The acquirer then submits the request to authorize the transaction to an issuer through a card network. If funds are available, the issuer sends an authorization code to the acquirer through the card network, and the acquirer notifies the merchant of the approval for the payment transaction. The payment process involves a single payment request generated and submitted by the merchant. The request contains generalized information, such as the total payment amount and consumer account-identifying information encoded on the card's magnetic stripe or user-entered information, but the request does not contain item-specific information, such as the stock-keeping unit (“SKU”) number, or user identification information, such as an electronic mail address.
Conventional merchant-consumer financial transactions also have involved payment via a consumer's financial account, such as a debit card, credit card, or stored value card. The consumer card typically accesses only one type of account, which is maintained by only one issuer. For instance, an “issuer1” credit card accesses only the consumer's financial account from “issuer1,” and payment is approved/denied by a single issuer (“issued”). Approval or denial of the transaction is dependent upon rules set by the particular issuer, for example, credit limits and geographical limitations. Notification of a violation of these rules results in a declined transaction, and the consumer must contact the issuer to alter the rules or to address a declined transaction.
More recently, proxy card payment systems enable users to utilize a single card to access multiple financial accounts maintained by multiple issuers. The merchant supplies a merchant category code (“MCC”) or an alternate category code to a payment instrument to the proxy card payment system, but the MCC is not further transmitted to the payment instrument system that is selected to conduct the transaction because the proxy card system is not a merchant and does not have a merchant category code to insert into the new payment request. That is, when the proxy card system receives the transaction request details and the MCC, determines the payment instrument to be utilized, and requests a second transaction with the selected payment instrument, the proxy card system does not transmit the MCC to the payment instrument system. Thus, the payment instrument system cannot use the MCC for characterizing the transaction.